In This Week’s Show, episode 227, I’m back so we’re gonna talk about lots of sex and weird stuff.

Now, grab a beer and help us test the god hypothesis — because, while Brighid (the Irish hearth goddess) hasn’t struck us down yet, we are trying her patience!

Shea’s Life Lesson

This week I learned that gay sex is literally twice as manly as straight sex.

Jenn’s Actual Lesson

The Great Whiskey Fire of Dublin killed 13 people in 1875. No one actually died as a result of smoke inhalation or burns. They all died of alcohol poisoning by drinking the whiskey flowing through the streets.

This Week’s Show

Headlines!

There are a lot of gaps. Thigh gaps. Wage gaps. And where our ven-App and lady-gap overlap… the orgasm gap! Canada’s National Film Board started to do some research into the orgasm-gap and found a 2014 study that showed that when having sex with a new partner, roughly 85% of men got their cookies, but only 62% of women were so lucky. That number grew a mear 13% when studying lesbians.

Apparently realizing the low cinematographic quality of bored, underwhelmed ladies, the Film board began development of a mobile phone game. “It might be because the clitoris is not sort of well-known,” said Maude Fraser of the o-gap, “so what we’re saying to close that orgasm gap is [the game] Clit-me.” When launched the game begins with a video introducing the player to the anatomy of the clitoris – represented in the game as a cartoon octopus-like avatar based on 2015’s first-ever 3D model of the clit. “We learned a lot of stuff because the clitoris doesn’t actually look like what we think it looks like,” said Fraser, noting that players begin by customizing their avatar because “every clitoris is unique.”

Players use their fingers to make “tactile movements” on the screen aiming to score points by “satisfying” your clit-o-puss. If you have the phalangeal-dexterity to make it to level 5, you’ll be faced with the most terrifying beast cryptozoology hasn’t found, the female orgasm. “We want to bring awareness to that body part,” Fraser said. “Embrace your clitoris and learn about it and care about it.” So if you want your own Tamacoochi visit nfb.ca/clitme

There’s Also An App For Porn

No, this isn’t another headline where I’m gonna tell you about PornHub. It’s a headline about keeping the Queen from watching you watch PornHub.

Yes, it’s an affiliate link but we use this service and wouldn’t suggest it if it sucked. It’s pretty simple to use, cheap, and fast. I’m not necessarily suggesting putting all your traffic through it, but you could.

~ Aaron

Since 2015 we’ve been … reporting … on the UK’s efforts to impose legal restrictions on accessing internet porn. And in a 2017 bill, the UK has done-kinda, just-ish, that-mostly. The 2017 Digital Economy Act includes a set of strict new rules that among other things require one to obtain a porn-pass from a local newsstand who can card them. So that’s awkward. The British Board of Film Classification is still fleshing out all the details but sites will be required to use tools like AgeID, provided by Montreal based MindGeek, the parent company of PornHub and damn-near wherever else internet-accessible boobies are sold…

The roughly 2900 nationwide stores would sell a “porn pass,” a 16-digit code for £5.99, and would require a driver’s license or passport to verify the buyer’s age. It’s worth noting that the method wouldn’t require entering personal information and totally, for-sure not because the Digital Police Alliance suggested that websites could utilize “information already on the books” such as post offices or wireless providers could you know, just like, handle that. Also, most stories seem to think these ID cards are only good for 24-hours, per-device, or at more expensive … probably not “family plan” right … umm, premium porn-pass will run you another 3 .. “quid” I think.

Obviously, there are problems here. Dr. Victoria Nash of the Oxford Internet Institute says “it may make it harder for children to stumble across pornography, especially in the younger age range, but it will do nothing to stop determined teenagers.” Fun fact I made up about Dr. Nash, her thesis was on why the actual fuck we continue to need to explain the obvious to the people running our world! Dr Joss Wright, also from the Oxford Internet Institute, says: “There’s privacy issues – you’re requiring people to effectively announce the fact they are looking at this material to the credit card authorities. And there’s serious security issues from requiring people to enter their credit card details into untrusted sites.”

Which brings me to the App. It’s called Private Internet Access. It’s a great, anonymizing, secure VPN service that will encrypt traffic on all the devices you install it on for one flat rate. And depending on when this show airs, we might just have a proper affiliate link in the show notes, but we’ve recommended it before and use it ourselves. Because if you live in America this entire story would be in the past tense – oh, and it excludes even the attempt at ridiculous age verification requirements and skips right to your ISP selling your traffic information to advertisers, governments, or other interested parties. Yep. That’s legal now with special thanks to Ajit Paj, the Trump Administration, and everyone who helped – directly or indirectly – put them in power.

So. You found the clit.

Well, kind of – It’s currently available at patreon.com/w4w so go and sign up, find the fabled clit, and then come drink green beer with us on Sunday!

And, fearing the Queen’s icy grip on your … porn habits, it’s time to get back into your wife’s good graces… Ok, convince her to let you have yet another disappointing try… Ok, manipulate her into one more do-over just like that time you fake-cried to get more skeeball tickets, you insufferable man-child.

Some enterprising, I assume Russians, have commercialized influencing people on the internet. And by people I mean your wife’s reality-stricken sex-life, and by Russians, I mean any shitty group of people from literally anywhere. The Spinner, launched in April, offers subliminal-marital bliss for as slow as $29/month. You sign up, send your lady a link, meme, or funny pic that’s embedded with tracking code and the service will slowly inject her web traffic with the steady campaign of misinformation required to get a shitheel like you laid, or a shitgibbon like Trump elected.

The service will redirect searches to information similar to the originally requested sites and articles, but from resources designed to convey specific messages or partner sites whose headlines, highlighted quotes, and other eye-catching texts are reworded by Spinner’s team to influence your “target” in the direction indicated when you set up the service. The basic package includes ensuring a target is exposed to at least one of 10, purpose-written articles like “3 Reasons Why YOU Should Initiate Sex With Your Husband,” up to 180 times over a three month period. As Spinner’s marketing copy chillingly states, “Let the brainwashing begin.” Elliot Shefler, Vice President Of Media and Social at The Spinner and totally a good-guy, says his service is like Cambridge Analytica for couples. “We are giving these abilities to the common man,” he tells Rolling Stone. “If you wanted to do this campaign two years ago you had to go to a big agency that had connections with public relations and make a campaign to target someone and now you just register, and you can have your own PR campaign for $29. The agency model was here for many years but now we don’t need the agency.” They’ve also got a kids plan! It’s designed to manipulate your parents into getting you a puppy, jeez, get your mind out of the Vatican. “[For a] young woman, we would use a short headline, or for an older woman a longer headline. And for a conservative woman we show how to strengthen the marriage life,” he says.

So that’s all terrible.

And, if I may be so bold. You don’t need $29 worth of Russian interference, what you need to do are some chores, draw a bath, and download ClitMe.

This Week’s Stories

I don’t know what’s worse, watching porn with your mom or watching porn your mom made… Either way you can soon watch porn made by moms in an upcoming BBC channel 4 documentaries. Five moms have teamed up with channel 4 to tackle a kid-friendly porn experience.

In response to a soon ban on internet porn in the United Kingdom a group of five, very brave women, also mums, have begun researching porn in an effort to make it less violent and more appropriate for multiple ages.

The 3 60-minute episode series will follow the mothers as they research the world of pornography to produce their own adult film. Working with industry experts, the moms will have complete artistic control, overseeing the writing, casting, directing and editing of their “mum-approved” project, in a big to create a film that works as pornography while promoting healthy attitudes towards sex and relationships for the next generation.

The mums started by browsing x-rated pornos that could be accessed by youngsters online for free. But they were left traumatized by flicks that simulated rape. Mum Sarah, from north Wales, claimed she got sick after watching the fetishized rape scene, I hope they didn’t look up hentai… She also cried and said she hated the thought of her son treating women like that.“If that was the first time I’d seen anything about sex I’d be petrified,” she said.“I just thought all of a sudden that I was going to throw up.“We need to show kids that there’s something else than this horrible s*** we see on the internet.”She added: “If my son treated a woman like that I would kick his arse to kingdom come.

“Porn is both prolific and here to stay,” said Sarah Lazenby, head of formats and features at Channel 4, in a statement. “We’re proud to be the channel that opens up the debate, puts parents in the director’s chair, and in your living room.”

“It is a disturbing fact that more and more young people are learning about sex for the first time via easily accessible hardcore pornography.” “This series is a bold and ballsy way to shine a light on a number of issues relating to the attitude toward sex of kids today, through the families that are raising them.”

The porn film will be aired on in the final of the three-part show as they hold a viewing party for their family, friends – and most importantly, their kids.

Stats commissioned by the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) suggest the majority of children have been exposed to pornography by their early teens. Around 65% of 15- to 16-year-olds report having seeing pornography, as did 28% of 11- to 12-year-olds.

The series starts on March 20 on BBC Channel 4 and I’m more excited for this than dance moms…

You know we here at W4W love ourselves some science. And facts. Big fans. Esteemed journalism, peer-reviewed articles, cross-references, BIBLIOGRAPHIES!! Hell. Yes. But we’re also skeptics and don’t necessarily always believe everything at first blush. Usually, these two attributes can play together nicely, but…(ominous pause)…not always.

Today I’m going to introduce you to a scientist/doctor/talking head who you may not know the name of, but I bet you’ve clicked on an article or two he has been referenced or quoted in. Meet Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler, MD. Per the biography on his personal website he “is an award-winning Polish-American clinician sexologist, the scholar of forensic and legal medicine, the scientist trained in digital epidemiology, and the media health expert personality.” He’s listed as the top researcher for the non-profit, New York-based Felnett Health Research Foundation. The site goes on to state he as an MD and Ph.D. from Harvard, is one of the youngest elected members of the American Psychiatric Association (he’s 28) and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and that Barack Obama gave him a President’s Gold Service Award for his contributions in medicine and mental health. His website offers online psychotherapy and sex therapy.

He’s also pretty much an Eastern European doppelganger for the actor Adam Scott. If you are a fan of Parks and Rec, that’s Leslie’s hubby Ben, (plus a bunch of other stuff but that’s obviously the best).

He first gained public notice the summer of 2017 when he published a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine. Several news outlets jumped onboard the sharing of his findings. None of this is particularly interesting until you take a gander at the study’s title: “Similar mechanisms of traumatic rectal injuries in patients who had anal sex with animals to those who were butt-fisted by human sexual partner”.

Yeah… Well, we definitely need to look a little…deeper at this sort titillating journalism, right? He’s been quoted or directly sourced for such exciting articles as: “11 myths you should stop believing about sperm”, “12 G-spot myths you should stop believing” and “7 common infections that can be caused by sex” for Insider. He spoke with Women’s Health as an expert to help enlighten the audience as to: “7 ways to make the Missionary position hotter” & “12 orgasms every woman should have”. His work with Men’s Health includes “how to treat male menopause” and “how barre can improve your sex life”. (For the uninitiated, barre is a form of physical exercise, usually conducted in group classes in gyms or specialty studios. It is distinguished from other group fitness activities by its use of the ballet barre and its incorporation of movements derived from ballet.)

In June of 2018, he was interviewed by Vice for their article “Meet the Man Studying Why Some People Are Attracted to Animals”. It draws directly from his paper entitled “Why People Who Have Sex With Animals Believe That It Is Their Sexual Orientation—a Grounded Theory Study of Online Communities of Zoophiles,” where, per the article “Sendler found that zoophiles explain their attraction using a warped reading of genetics, debate if it is a true sexual orientation, discuss the legality and morality around having sex with animals, and compare animal love to human love.” It also includes anecdotes by his ‘research subjects’ detailing their love life with assorted 4 footed lovers. I’m not gonna get into to the specifics but the article is linked in the show notes.

October of last year Playboy did the same sort of write-up on Dr. Sendlar, but with the more Halloween-appropriate topic and title of ‘Holding on Like Grim Death: The Mind of a Necrophiliac’, again with testimonials. And again, link in show notes. (Senler met these particular patients when they were referred to his Felnett Foundation.) The paper that was the inspiration for this article is titled ‘Necrophilia in a Sample of Forensically-Committed Psychiatric Patients,’, which Playboy noted is “under review at the academic publication Omega—Journal of Death and Dying.“

Which brings us to February of this year when Forbes published the article “Why Do Women Fall in Love With Serial Killers,” which included quotes from Sendler. “Many women, and some men idealize criminals and murderers as the type of person who can give them support. It’s like a fetish,” Sendler told Forbes. (spoiler alert: it’s no longer available online)

Hmmm…

So switching gears for a quick moment, there’s another person I need to introduce before we go any further. His name is Jennings Brown. That name probably doesn’t ring a bell, but he does good work. Most specifically, he’s a journalist who wrote up an investigative report for the website Gizmodo, published March 1st of this year that’s really, really…really interesting.

Three guesses who the topic of this interesting article happens to be…

Mr. Brown spent weeks “interviewing and corresponding with dozens of sources at universities and hospitals” and “interviewing Sendler for several hours” and has produced a piece of the sort of ‘blow the cover off bullshit’ investigative journalism that just doesn’t come around very often.

Let’s look at a few things uncovered in the article, in yet another title, ‘The Fake Sex Doctor Who Conned The Media into Publicizing His Research on Suicide, Butt-Fisting, and Beastiality’. For starters, Sendler does not have a degree from Harvard (per the Harvard registrar’s office, he was never even enrolled), nor does the non-profit foundation he claims to work for even exist. He’s not a licensed medical doctor in the US.

Mr. Brown asks Sendlar during their sit down if he was able to get a Ph.D. in sexual behavior from Harvard Medical School. “Yes, yes, yes,” he answers without hesitation. “I assume that there’s still some kind of sense of wonder on campus [about me]. Because I can see it when I go and visit [Harvard], that people are like, ‘Wow you had the balls, because no one else did that,’” presumably referring to his academic path. Guess what? Harvard Medical doesn’t even offer any sexual health-focused programs.

While we’re on the subject of Harvard, here’s fun anecdote that pretty much sums this wackiness all up. Sendler often referred to Yi Zhang, a Harvard professor of genetics, as a mentor while he was “in school” (who just happened to “not believe in” him while he was studying at Harvard). In fact, just before he sat down with Brown for the Gizmodo interview, Sendler claimed to have met up with Zhang in Boston. Zhang had these words to offer: “Congrats. You did what you felt was right… Turns out, wow, you have way more power in research now than I do. And I’m just very proud of you, because I have people that I really put a lot of effort, after you left, into making them the best and they didn’t turn out that well.”

Well, crack reporter on the scene Jennings Brown just happened to look up Professor Zhang, and guess what?? Well, first off, he wasn’t a student of Zhang’s (remember, he was never enrolled at Harvard), he was an “unpaid assistant” in his lab.

In fact, a photo of himself on the Hahvahd Yahd (captioned on his website as ‘Dr. Sendler during graduate studies at Harvard University & Harvard Medical School…official lab photo 2013) is instead the photo shows Sendler with the rest of the lab technicians.

From Brown’s Gizmodo article: “I asked Zhang if he made this statement that Sendler attributed to him, and Zhang told me he didn’t say it and he hasn’t seen Sendler since Sendler stopped working at his lab in 2014. Zhang remembers that Sendler didn’t do very much work and that he talked a lot. “He will do one thing and claim he has done 10 things,” Zhang told me. “He was very talkative. He can sell.”

Now, I do want to point out that Sendler did indeed have some papers published (usually as a co-author), but it appears they were all done when he was working in assorted labs, usually unpaid. Another liar-liar-scrubs-on-fire, his website stated he “completed rigorous thesis research at the Institute of Cancer Genetics” at Columbia. The real story? While attending New York University (where he actually did receive a Bachelor’s Degree) he volunteered at the lab of Jose Silva, who was then an assistant professor at the Columbia University Institute of Cancer Genetics. He claimed Silva as his thesis advisor but, obviously, Nah.

To cover a few other claims I’ve mentioned, remember ‘I’m one of the youngest elected members of the American Psychiatric Association and the American “Academy of Psychiatry and the Law’? Well, I’m going to quote directly from the article again. Be warned, it’s kinda scary:

A representative of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law told me Sendler was in their database as a student, but he is not listed as a member. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) could not share membership information and couldn’t tell me if he is in the database. But an APA representative asked me for his name and typed it into a computer, while I waited on the phone. A moment later, she told me Sendler could be a member since he has an MD from Columbia and Harvard.

I asked how she knew that.

It’s on his website, the APA representative told me.”

There is also no award in existence called ‘President Barack Obama’s Gold Service Award for humanitarian work’ despite Sendler claiming having received it.

Finally, with dealing with his bona fides, remember how he was receiving patients at the non-profit Health Research Center that actually doesn’t exist? At the time this Gizmodo article was published Sendler claimed he was actively seeing patients in a mental health capacity. However, shockingly, he is not licensed to provide mental health services as a psychologist, psychoanalyst, or mental health counselor.

From the article: “When I first started reporting this story, Sendler’s website offered online psychotherapy, online sex therapy, and relationship coaching. The site claimed: “Dr. Sendler specializes in the treatment of patients with psychological and psychiatric conditions, ranging from post-traumatic stress among military veterans, and extending all the way to complex forensic cases involving paraphilias.”

One page on his site, which has since been taken down, contained a portal where clients could enter their credit card information and “experience online therapy offered by a world-class clinician” through video or messages. The page boasts “Ivy League credentials.” It was advertised as starting at $50 a week.”

Ok, I think we can safely say that no one wants to schedule an appointment with Dr. Sendler unless it’s for writing a fictional website, but before I wrap this up let’s talk a little bit again about his “published papers” that got him on the interview circuit.

Remember the Playboy article on necrophiliacs? Well, I’m gonna read a brief bit, be warned. This is from morgue worker “Matt”: “I unzipped the body bag and started looking back-and-forth at her looks. Eyes were wide open, and her mouth would not shut up. She looked like she was going through some orgasm and that got me excited. I started touching her legs, my hands moving into her vagina. She was pretty wet inside. I’m guessing she had some trauma?”

Now, that’s terrible and gross. But…and this may be more terrible…there is ZERO evidence that there was a single actual interview held for this study. In fact, “These narratives seem extremely implausible,” clinical psychologist and sex therapist David Ley told me after reading the study. “The sexual elements read more like Penthouse Letters than clinical narratives.” Moreover, there’s not a shred of ANY evidence for ANY of these kinky sex stories, from bestiality to fisting. It looks like Sendler fabricated personal testimonies of dozens of people dealing with taboo sexual encounters and wrote his papers in the creepiest way possible.

Continuing with Ley: “As I started reviewing the materials, my amazement grew. Every stone that we turned revealed more claims that seemed dubious, but had been accepted without the slightest question by a media that salivates over sensational sexual headlines.”

There is also an aspect to this that could be potentially more harmful than this other nonsense. As he apparently does interact with actual patients in some form, online or in person, and he also counsels them regarding suicide and self-harm. Quoting Dr. Ley again in reference to Sendler’s study on live-streamed suicides, “He is identifying working with people experiencing suicidal ideation and self-harming behaviors. And my God, I simply can’t come up with a more vulnerable population where we don’t want amateurs involved. That makes me very concerned. If he’s doing anything like that, people could be dying.”

He talked about this study when Brown interviewed him: “When Sendler told me about this study during our interview, he repeatedly used insensitive language that is strongly discouraged in the suicide prevention field…For instance, mental health professionals and people reporting on suicide are trained not to use the terms “successful,” “unsuccessful,” or “failed attempt” when discussing suicide. They’re also not supposed to use the phrase “committed suicide,” because that suggests the act is immoral or criminal.

“We have a paper that’s currently under review that looks at teenagers that failed at committing suicide live-streamed on Facebook,” Sendler said. “I’m particularly interested in working with individuals who survived a suicidal attempt and then lived to tell the story. So these are precisely the people that were included in this study—people that failed at suicide.”

Sendler said he found subjects by reaching out to people after he saw their online posts about attempting to end their life, and eventually gathered a “group of over 24 people who unsuccessfully committed suicide.”

Finally, this sticky sex sweater is still actively unraveling. Since I first I read the article by Brown, Sendler’s website has been totally taken down, with the exception of a lengthy statement of basically “nuh-uh” from the fake doctor. The link is in the show notes. Also, there was so much I wasn’t able to get into, so definitely check out the Gizmodo link. Jennings Brown deserves ALL the clicks for this article.

Next Week’s Beer

Lucky Bucket Brewing Co.- Tropic Wonder (Mango and habanero)

Faith In Humanity Restored

Carly the cat has a rare condition called swimmer’s syndrome. Basically, it makes her unstable on her paws causing her bottom to wobbly about or be dragged along with her. The 6-month-old kitty arrived at All Paws Rescue in Brampton Ontario but her disability made finding her a home difficult. She was fostered by Karen Boerner, a professional pet groomer in Guelph, who posted her plight online in the hopes of finding help.

The posts quickly caught the eyes of Canadian company Andosh Accessible Gaming. Founded and run by brothers Andrew and Joshua Cameron, both of whom have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a condition that reduces connective tissue causing easy dislocations. “Andrew has had numerous dislocations in his life and has worn a number of braces. He felt empathy for Carly … they both know what it’s like when your joints just won’t support you,” said Jennifer Cameron, the 52-year-old administrator for Andosh Accessible Gaming.

The brothers collaborated with a certified orthotist and 3D-printed braces that would let Carly walk again.

“It was amazing to see how quickly she was getting around,” said Cameron. “It was so cute, she stood there upright for the first time, like ‘I’m a big kitten now’, she was so proud of herself.”

Once Carly has had time to adjust to her braces and finishes learning to use the litter box, which is now an option for her, she’ll be available to a good home.

“She seems even happier than before. Nothing gets her down.”

And if you want to watch a kitten run around to visit the link in the show notes.